Meet Mecha Mickey and the Disney Super Sentai

We’ve come a long way from Steamboat Willie. Apparently Disney and toy-maker Bandai are working together on a Voltron-like toy robot called King Robo, and according to the storyline, Mickey Mouse and his friends supposedly pilot the robot. The toy, part of the Bandai’s Chogokin line, will be released March 2013, and unlike most Disney toys, it will be aimed at ages 15 and up. If successful, the property could spawn an anime series.

And speaking of Steamboat Willie, apparently the robot’s head transforms from a toy version of the paddle boat from that landmark film! Click the image below to see how each Disney-mecha character transforms into the body and limbs of “King Robo”.

I agree. Fire the missiles and end this horrible nightmare of a toy. Destroy, destroy, DESTROY!!!!!!!!!!! Don’t look directly at it.

http://www.kicreativestudio.blogspot.com Ki Innis

I really dig the promotional art above. Generic or not, it looks like fun. However, if this IS successful and it does spawn an animated series —- I truly fear it might end up with the flattened production treatment that Japan’s Lilo and Stitch had. Or even worse, it might even end up like Mickey’s Clubhouse.

http://youtube.com/drexelboi1991 tedzey71

…Or Lonatics Unleashed

wever

Keep in mind Japan is also the origin of Kingdom Hearts. There is a chance an anime could be good.

Confusion

But…Kingdom Hearts is a horrible convoluted mess…

Alissa

No it’s not… It’s pretty straightforward if you pay attention. Just remember the audience is privy to info the heroes aren’t. And the villains each have their own agendas and are prone to stabbing each other in the back at the drop of a hat.

Andrew Hager

I honestly have nothing have against Kingdom Hearts, OR Loonatics Unleashed. In fact, I enjoy them wholeheartedly. And as for this “Mecha Mickey”, the mecha may be a bit corny, but hey, this looks like it could spawn an entertaining anime series. And I certainly hope it does.

Whether or not I manage to buy this online, I’ll be absolutely happy to tell my friends the news. I sure hope they find it as entertaining as I do.

http://www.daryl-rhystaylor.co.uk DarylT

I like it.

Daniel J. Drazen

The casting almost works. But to be TRULY sentai it would have to follow the conventions of sentai teams:

There’s the leader, the hot-headed second-in-command, the girl, the big beefy guy, and the kid.

Mickey being the leader is a no-brainer, as are Donald as the hot-headed second-in-command and Minnie as the girl. That leaves the big beefy guy (Pete?) and the kid.

http://artnote.blog.com Stephen

Just so long as they leave Oswald out of it…

Altair

Oswald could start as the enemy that becomes their ally near the end.

Chris Sobieniak

I could see Pete in this if they had to put him on the heroes side (or as an antihero), but I do wonder who’d get to be the “kid” of the team (perhaps one of Donald’s nephews).

wever

Merging with other brands is a great idea for Disney when trying to remain relevant in these times, but I fear that they could run out of brands to take over in the long term future!

AJ

I see Mickey and co as essentially hollow marketing objects nowadays. so, any interpretation is o.k with me even the pretty mindless genres. The end goal is to sell as much worthless junk as possible

Michel Van

the Disney Super Sentai …?
I wanna see that series, special the Enemies !

http://youtube.com/user/Mesterius1 Mesterius

So this is what Disney is apparently doing with Mickey instead of greenlighting a hand-drawn theatrical feature? About that first sentence, Jerry… “We’ve come a long way from Steamboat Willie.”…

…actually, it seems to me we’ve gone a long way back.

John

I love the concept but not the execution. I wouldn’t mind getting the Mickey Robot and possibly the Minnie one to go with it but I don’t really care for the rest and the complete giant robot is just way to busy looking. The fact that it reminds me of Voltron doesn’t help matters. I would have liked something way more slicker and Disney like.

Kristjan B.

I think this is horrible Idea. Walt must be turning is his grave.

Gerard de Souza

Walt’s been spinning in his grave since the first direct to video.
Just that his RPMs must be increasing.

wever

Walt’s been turning in his grave since years after he died when his studio didn’t know what the Hell to produce and wound up with mediocre films for a time! Can we please stop with the “turning in his grave” bashing!? It’s getting old!

http://youtube.com/Mesterius1 Mesterius

Just too bad the studio had already begun making mediocre films even before Walt died (The Sword in the Stone, anyone?). I’d imagine he probably started spinning even before he was in the grave.

Gerard de Souza

As a novelty, the toy looks cool. The animated series idea is lame.

Bruce Watkinson

I, for one, am pretty excited about this. With the exception of the Donald & Goofy theatrical shorts from the 30′s to late 60′s, I’m not what you call a big Disney fan. Heck, I mostly want it just because of how ridiculous the whole premise really is.

Still, you would think that Pete would be in control of that Rocket-powered Steamboat, along with playing the role of the fat guy in this Super Sentai team.

Manny

Seems like Disney going the Loonatics route with this.

Haruna

This will be bad like Kingdom hearts.

Rob B

Ages 15 and up? Bahaha, you must be kidding.

http://www.dudegurlz.com Kris Kail

If they do an animated series it would have to be fun, upbeat, silly, and self-aware. I’m laughing hysterically at that toy and I really need one on my shelf, if they did an animated series and had some good writers it would be great.

Somebody

Not the first time, there was a Buzz Lightyear Chogokin back in 2010-11 ish. Not kidding, Google search it.

Alissa

On one hand: blatant cash grab. On the other hand: mechs, my one true weakness….

I do find it pretty funny how much of the initial ‘anime’ style-and by extension early mecha anime-was derived from Disney and disney-esque style. Talk about coming full circle!

Reo

I think this is a pretty fun concep—
(reads comments)
…dang, I keep forgetting how nasty and meanspirited everyone on this site is. No wonder you guys launched a thousand Bronies…

Piqutchi

Nasty? Mean-spirited?

…Are you sure we’re browsing the same website?

Glowworm

To be honest, I can see my boyfriend buying all these little robots to make one big one. This is the guy who loves Power Rangers.

I don’t think the concept is terrible–it’s not like Mickey and the gang have become dark colored futuristic descendants of the characters we all know and love*cough* Loonatics*cough cough*

Toast

Aw, Horace and Clarabelle isn’t in it? Do we get a Peg-Leg Pete supervillain Mech?
I have mixed feelings about this. The creators looked like they had a lot of fun with the concept, but those are two things that’s pretty hard to combine without looking like a pre-school show. It’s this generation’s point of view so, it’s better to wait and see. Generation gaps and stuff, hehe.

Alissa

Yes! Evil cat mech is mandatory!

http://dtoons.com Dtoons

An anime series of Mickey and co. piloting a giant robot possibly fighting giant Disney monsters like Genie Jafar, Ursula, Dragon Maleficent, and Chernabog?
I would watch the crap out of that.

http://elblogderg.blogspot.com Roberto González

I don’t mind the toy. In fact it’s kind of cool. Not very Disney-like, but fun. Who cares? It’s just a toy.

I’m unsure about the anime series but if they don’t change the designs too much it could be ok. It’s not like Goof Troop or Quack Pack were masterpieces. If they don’t go the Loonatics route it’d be fine.

But yeah, how about that long promised feature with Mickey, Donald and Goofy?

wever

I loved Goof Troop!

http://elblogderg.blogspot.com Roberto González

It was better than Quack Pack and I remember some specific episodes being quite good, but overall it’s not what I’d call a classic, and sometimes it was quite mediocre. I loved A Goofy Movie, though. I thought they took everything that worked in Goof Troop and removed what didn’t work. I don’t want to sound misogynist but the whole thing got a more “classic” feel once they got rid of Pete’s wife and daughter.

Funkybat

I agree that Goof Troop had some entertaining episodes bur was an overall letdown. It was also definitely better than Quack Pack, which to this old DuckTales/Darkwing fan, is pretty much a blocked memory.

The Goofy Movie and to some extent its D2V sequel were good-to great because the stories were more mature, and less reliant on slapstick and contrived Flintstones-eqsue situations. The emotional connections between characters felt much more real as well. I was kind of hoping for a second sequel I liked those films so much, but I guess “Extremely Goofy Movie” didn’t sell enough to justify it.

Andrew Hager

I don’t know about you guys, but I actually enjoyed Loonatics Unleashed. The creators were lazy, sure, but it was still entertaining for this cartoon fan.

But enough about WB, my opinion on the concept of THIS idea can be seen up above.

dbenson

I’m waiting for Chernabog’s Easy-Bake Oven.

CTM

Toys? Haha, fun little nonsense. Cool. A series? Either the worst thing ever, best thing ever, or unintentional best thing ever. Could go a lot of ways.

locuas

One could say this would ruin the disney characters…but that was people said about KH.
One could say that the disney characters are not meant for action series…but there are some GLORIOUS comics with them doing that kind of things, especially donald in a Batman beyond like series.
Besides, i think this times NEEEDS some true super robot animes with less gray-gray morality and more fun while punching things.

Also, Oswald is gonna be the sixth ranger. with his own super awesome fire mecha. something like “Fire emperor Oswald”.

Andrew Hager

Where did you hear that?

locuas

nowhere, it was just a joke xD

Mr-Famicom

A few things to say.

1.As long as Disney focus on Mickey and not teenybopper garbage, I’m ok by it, for all the bad things Eisner has done, not once that he has ever try to replace the mouse unlike what Iger did with Miley Cyrus.

2.As for a animated adaptation, (nay sayers, please stay out of this); The only studio that can do the job right is Telecom Animation Film (TMS), we all know how badly Madhouse messed up Stitch and Marvel’s works (if you like them, thats ok, I’m just going by how most people view the shows as, plus I did not watch them) , Toei Jumped shark by 1972 (and coming out of someone who likes Ojamajo Doremi and thinks that their part of Halo Legends was the best part of the whole DTV, thats saying alot), the less said about Sunrise’s Batman:TAS output, the better (yet their were still better then Akom and Blue Pencil, most of their output ended up in China and to a lessor extent Korea and it did lead up the the Big-O), Studio 4C jumped shark in 2010 with the likes of Green Lantern:Emerald Knights, ThunderCats 2011 (Butterfly Blues however was top notch and felt like what Spectrum and Disney Japan was doing back in the 90′s, not as zany as TMS’ output, but it’s a nice form of competition to John K’s Simpsons Couch gag) and the upcoming Berserk movie (not a western made thing, but it’s still wasted talent, and the studio is better off doing films like Mind Game and Genius Party), Spectrum and Disney Japan are now gone but The Answer Studio thens to be good with western stuff (yet Batman:Under The Red Hood was off due to bad Korean outsourcing, and the better parts of it were done at TMS through Toshihiko Masuda’s unit through key animation) and Shin-Ei Doga’s output on Stitch was (from what I have read) far better then Madhouse’s output; Look if you what a Japan to do a western production right, give it to TMS (mid to late 80′s Disney, Tom Ruegger and Bruce Timm say hi), they know what their doing (to say nothing about Fox Kids Spider-Man, as most of that show was done in Korea).

Chris Sobieniak

It’s certainly a blueprint for success!

Mr-Famicom

Thanks for your support, yet I’m more in the Warners camp, Disney will be fine.

As for the “what if?” show, whats needs to be done besides TMS doing it is that it costs at least $5 million dollars per episode (or as much as a episode of The Simpsons, Japanese animation when done right is very expensive as was the case with Warner’s 90′s work), most of it going into the animation, with people like Tress Macneille and Jim Cummings doing the voice acting, and for the love of Ub Iwerks, make sure that Oswald The Lucky Rabbit is in this, it’s great that he’s in Epic Mickey but not everyones a gamer (like this site’s Jerry Beck) and use other things other then the main crew and some things of the Disney Film Cannon, like The Gummi Bears, Darkwing Duck and Bonkers, and also, please use fan favorites like Gargoyles, Kim Possible and (once the series ends, if it dose end) Phineas and Ferb as alot of Disney fans like said shows (I rather have Gummi Bears, Darkwing Duck and Bonkers like I said before, so lets have both so that Disney can make alot of money off of this and to make sure that everyone (for this) is happy) also, please give TMS at least 20% of the money that is made off of this.

As for the story/plot, lets just say that The Beagle Boy are going to steal Scrooge McDuck’s money bin and tells his nephew Donald to bring his friends to pilot the 6 robots built by Gyro Gearloose and Ludwin Von Drake because it neads 6 pilots to run them (plus Scrooge dose not what Launchpad McQuack using the robots to crash into stuff), after Mickey and the gang stop The Beagle Boys Scrooge tells them to keep using the robot because the robots were to much money to make and tells them to pay him back the money to pay back for the cost of the robots.

For the show it self, think of it like the Barks/Rosa comics, but with big robots.

If you have something other then that in mind or will what to add something, please tell me, I will like to know (nay sayers, please stay out of this).

Andrew Hager

You know, Mr-Famicon, I think I know what you’re getting at. I’ve never thought about which company to ship my idea for a new Disney cartoon to, but what you just said really opened my eyes. I can tell you’ve been doing your homework at an A++ level! But enough about my idea, it sounds to me like TMS is this idea’s best bet. I sure hope they consider making it into a show with Disney.

Please, tell me more about this Telecom Animation Film, Mr-Famicon.

Mr-Famicom

Thanks for your support, Yes TMS is world famously know for their US stuff with Disney and Warner Bros.

as for Telecom, they’re TMS’ foreign productions unit, as they did most of TMS’ foreign stuff and all of the Disney and Warner Bros stuff, most people just call them by TMS’ name.

As for the history between the 2 hears how it went.

back in 1984 Disney was looking to get into TV animation but there was not alot of people at Disney willing to do TV animation, so Eisner made the idea to just ditch the animation to another studio, Eisner got 3 studios do do The Wuzzles pilot and the studio that got the highest score out of 1 to 10 will get the that and Gummi Bears, the 3 studios were Toei (who got a 5, but they were not that interested in doing a show about animal hybrids, not to mention that they spent alot of money to do the animated version of Dragon Ball which was pushed back to Feb-1986 because of Sunbow ditching Transformers and GI Joe to them) Dong-Seo (which got a 1 as the animation (from what I have read) was garbage as was the case with most pre-Rough Draft Korean animation) and of course TMS (which got a 9 and won the contract, but they will only do the shows if they got production control over the shows/episodes they got from Disney (same thing with Warner Bros) and that they get at least 20% of the show’s/episodes that they worked on royalties (TMS got 35% with Warner Bros, it was the same lay out with Bruce Timm but with more royalties but was all around with Tom Ruegger’s stuff (meaning that they got money on every episode, even episodes they had nothing to do with like the Akom, Wang and StarToons ditched episodes) due to how much money they lost on Little Nemo) and that they mostly used Ex-Disney staff that were working on Little Nemo at the time on said pilot), TMS got the contract to do Wuzzles and Gummi Bears and later on DuckTales, The New Adventures of Winnie The Pooh and Chip ‘n Dale’s Rescue Rangers, after that Disney open up their own Japanese studio (Walt Disney Animation Japan) founded by Ex-TMS producer Motoyoshi Tokunaga after Eisner bought out Pacific Animation Corp. (a studio mostly know for Rankin Bass’ Thundercats), TMS after Disney/Little Nemo made a name for themselves with Tiny Toons, Batman:TAS and Animaniacs and the rest is history.

I…kinda love it.
So let me get this straight, they were perfectly willing to leave power rangers to die and be sold back to Saban, but they still want a piece of the Sentai pie? Is this Disney feeling a bit of seller’s remorse?

http://ryuuseipro.blogspot.com/ John Paul Cassidy

This is more from Toei’s consent than Saban’s. Disney *does* have a Japanese branch, you know. :)

Mr-Famicom

True, they also use to have a animation unit (Walt Disney Animation Japan) their too; But unlike TMS/Telecom (The Wuzzles, Adventures of The Gummi Bears, DuckTales, The New Adventures of Winnie The Pooh and Chip ‘n Dale’s Rescue Rangers) and Madhouse (Stitch and a number of Marvel shows), Disney Japan was just a ditching ground for Disney US and never made anything for themselves; They went down in 2004 and after that some of their staff made The Answer Studio from the after math of WDAJ’s shut down.

If WDAJ was still up, they will have done it (if it ever gets green lit, of course), but the studio is now gone.

FigmentJedi

Wait, are they considering a show or are you just guessing? I’ve always wanted to see Disney play with some of these Elseworld ideas that keep cropping up in merchandise like that Mechanical Kingdom Steampunk stuff from a few years ago. A Disney Mecha Show would be fantastic.

Haruna

The suits are mainly a homage to the disgusting anime Evangelion.

Chris Sobieniak

Sure is! Just be grateful Mickey isn’t the Shinji type!

Mr-Famicom

I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one that thinks that Gainax is overrated (They do have alot of talent, but the studio is so over hyped that it’s sickening).

As for Telecom (they tend to be called by their parent company’s name “TMS” outside of Japan most of the time as was the case for Disney’s mid to late 80′s shows and Warner’s output until their come back with Green Lanturn:First Flight when their were finally called them by their real name and not under TMS’ name, for this sake, I’m going to call them Telecom for this post); Telecom was pitching a Mickey Pilot (Hisao Yokobori’s (one of Telecom’s main directors) Twitter account hinted at it, but you will need a translater for said account http:twitter.com/i/#!/Gohibu776/media/slideshow?url=pic.twitter.com%2FhaXuo2Ot ) because of Disney picking up outsiders shows like Gravity Falls and Wonder Over Yonder, Disney did pick up an the idea but is not making the show right away because of how much money it will take to make 1 episode, so Disney teamed up with Bandai to make toys out of the robots and will only green light it for 2 things.

1.Make sure that the toys sell well enough.

And 2. Outsource for Sunrise’s (as Bandai owns Sunrise) Aikatsu.

I will like to say more about this but it’s a long story.

http://she-thing.blogspot.com Caty

Ha! The robot seems like real fun. Looks like a Disney-meets-Gaudi-Mecha-Building thing. I hope the arms can move though.

Vincent Giannell

I can understand the idea of Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Minnie, and Daisy wearing those suits. But why is Pluto wearing one? I thought they would Oswald as a sixth member.

Vetus

This is…SO **** AWESOME!

http://miniscarlet.wordpress.com Fen

For the record, these designs beat the disastrous Barney’s New York anorexic makeovers by a landslide :P

To be honest though, I am actually really curious to see how it would work out as an anime series if sales turn out to be successful.

Albert

Power Rangers Disney style.? *vomits* Oh my lord. How much more can Disney twist their characters into such horrible shapes. First the scrawny fashion things and now this sorry excuse for a Voltron wannabe. It’s no wonder Disney sucks so much these days.

JSG

Oh Disney,must your hand be in everything.Just go ahead and buy the TMNT from Vaicom while your at it!

H park

Don’t you guys just hate it when your favorite animated characters have anything Japan (or Asia for matter) in it?

I wonder how you guys will take it if Disney adjusts its characters for Middle Eastern or African culture.

Mr-Famicom

No, With TMS/Telecom, they tend to do top notch work with western made stuff, just because Madhouse had bad luck with them (their works with Marvel and Stitch) dose not mean that every Japanese studio can not do western made stuff, just look at 4C’s Butterfly Blues, it’s some of the best animation Japan ever put out; In fact TMS is still dishing out US stuff as is the case with this year’s Justice League Doom (It was indeed good (at least in my option), but is not worth watching more then once, also at the time, Buta was their main focus and the head animation director’s (Yuichiro Yano) main focus was Moyashimon Returns) and Superman VS The Elite (which in my option was the better one out of the two); If this ever gets green lit, TMS/Telecom will do just fine on it.

Matt

I think Shin-Ei Animation, the studio behind Doraemon, should make an anime series with Mickey Mouse (in celebration of his 85th birthday). Who knows? Maybe this robot can be a part of a possible subplot.